I left the US early last Sunday morning, but not for China. My best friend Avery goes to college in Singapore, and being in the same hemisphere as her was too good an opportunity to pass up. So now, I’ve been in Singapore for nearly a week!
But Singapore didn’t end up being my first international destination on this trip, either. My flight out of Philadelphia was booked through Qatar Airways, with a 3-hour layover in Doha, Qatar. When my flight was delayed, however, reshuffling my connection landed me in Doha for 12 hours. So I decided to make my adventure a little more adventurous.
Since my layover was so long, the Doha airport kindly provided me with a hotel room, and along with it, a free tourist visa. After checking into my room, I got some food at the buffet, and then went to the concierge to sign up for a tour of the city.
The tour, just 3 hours in total, was mostly a flyover of the most notable destinations in the city. We first stopped at the Pearl-Qatar, an uber-high class shopping and residential complex. With name-brands like Ferrari and Armani, it wasn’t quite a shopping stop for me.
After driving around the island a little more, we ended up at Souq Waqif, a large hawkers’ market. My favorite part of the souq was a street completely filled with birds in cages. I was wearing conservative clothing, but was still one of the few women in the souq without her head covered, and I felt somewhat exposed as a result.
Another observation: I felt rather ignorant at this realization, but I hadn’t known before landing in Doha that it is common for Qatari men to wear traditional Arab attire as their everyday clothing. My Western appearance definitely made me stick out as I meandered through the souq.
Tuscany and I found our next photo op on the way to the Museum of Islamic Art. We took a glass elevator up to the museum entrance, and stepped out onto a veranda lined with palm trees overlooking Doha Bay.
The museum was very cool – I didn’t have much time there, but I got to look at the calligraphic art exhibit, which I’ve always been interested in. There, I found these beautiful daggers, which even got the Avery Simmons stamp of approval.
After the museum, it was time to head back to the hotel and collect my things, then return to the airport for the flight to Singapore. Thus concluded my shortest vacation ever – for the $70 taxi tour, I got my own mini getaway in the lovely nation of Qatar.
